Would-be Pithy Peter

Tuesday, 30 January 2018

Astonished! Alarmed! Appalled! These were my reactions to reading in the North Norfolk News, figures released by End Child Poverty which showed that 27.4% of young people in North Norfolk live in child poverty, above the nation’s average of 26.9%.

Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk, was quoted as rightly saying: “These figures are seriously concerning. Something is really wrong with the way our country is run if the UK, one of the wealthiest in the world, can’t ensure the well-being of a quarter of its children.”

So, how am I feeling less than a week later, about this appalling indictment of society’s failure to care for so many of our young? Astonished, alarmed and appalled, but do I feel angry enough about it? If a quarter of our young were being systematically, physically and emotionally abused, would I so readily tolerate it?

Why then am I not angry enough? Is it because as one of the fifth in our community who are retired, and who is relatively comfortably well off (though I haven’t been able to afford to go on a cruise this year!), that it doesn’t really concern me. After all, I’ve never been one of those so called ‘skivers’, who if certain sections of the media are to be believed, are probably the parents of these children.

No, I am a ‘striver’, one of those who the government champions, because I’ve always been willing to work. I’ve paid my National Insurance dues all my life, surely I’m entitled to metaphorically put my feet up? In any case, what can I do, apart from making a nuisance of myself, by making a fuss about it? Then, what would other people think of me?

Wasn’t I brought up to do as I was told, and only speak when I was spoken to? Certainly, I was taught to not question my elders and betters, those who knew best, those in authority! After all, they were democratically elected to govern our country, justly and fairly!

I only have to look at the Government’s Policy areas online, to know that they believe: ‘All children should grow up in a supportive and stable environment’. That they are ‘supporting people who care about their communities and want to get involved in improving them’; ‘working to make Britain a fair, free and democratic society’; encouraging ‘greater public participation in decision-making’; ‘working to spend public money responsibly and effectively’.

Now I can sit back, content in the knowledge that those in power believe, ‘openness and transparency can save money’, and ‘strengthen people’s trust in government’; that they’re ‘giving local councils more power to decide how to spend public money in their areas so they can meet local people’s needs’, and that the ‘benefit system needs to be reformed to be fair, affordable and able to reduce poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency’. Gosh, that really lets me off the hook!

Friday, 26 January 2018

I recently watched the film 'Unrest', a very moving and challenging film about people (millions worldwide) who are suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It really is a film well worth watching.

In company with many who seek to fight against injustice, I feel impotent, when it comes to doing so effectively. How can I, how can we, make a stand against all the disadvantages, disabilities, and diseases, suffered by so many people here and abroad. How can we change the warped priorities of successive governments and big business, and turn back the tide.

In ‘Unrest’, it is clear there are ways to stir up unrest. What methods could those who feel angered about injustice use? One effective weapon is the pen. Writing to the local press is a thrust many could make. Signing a petition is another option for having a stab, as is using social media. Then of course, a cross on a ballot paper would be the ultimate coup de grâce, locally or nationally!

Is there a case though for more drastic action? Writing from prison in Birmingham, Alamba, concerning civil disobedience Martin Luther King Jr stated: “I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”

Is it right to use morally justifiable means, even if illegal, to combat the sorts of injustices, which are blighting so many, who cannot on their own or in groups of fellow sufferers, effectively do anything.

So what can we do? Before we go further down the path of civil disobedience, let's start making more use of a weapon we already have - the pen!

Maybe we could start up a petition along the following lines: “We the people are saying, in regard to cuts to public services, which disproportionally affect the poor, the marginalised, the disadvantaged and the defenceless: ‘Enough is enough!’ We call on Government to reverse these cuts and to initiate uni-partisan support for finding more creative, innovative, just and fair solutions, to combat social injustice, which reflect the priorities of the majority of people in this country and the values for which so many of our forebears gave their lives.”

What a fitting way to mark the hundredth anniversary of the Great War - a great war against poverty and injustice!

United, we should stand for Justice, Fairness and Equality — otherwise, we fall — and fail!

In Act 3 Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 2, there is a discourse between King Henry and the Earls of Surrey and Warwick. The King states: “Then you perceive the body of our kingdom how foul it is, what rank diseases grow and with what danger near the heart of it.” The Earl of Warwick responds: “It is but as a body yet distempered, which to his former strength may be restored with good advice and little medicine.”

There is little doubt that, in many ways, in common with many other nations, the United Kingdom is as much uneased, as diseased. It is diseased in that it is blighted with a lack of tolerance and respect for those with differing views, and an increasing disregard, at all levels of society, for the needs of the poor and vulnerable.

It is uneased by the growing discontent and discomfort felt by many, at their lack of power to do something about the state of our nation and our communities. In the wake of abuses of power by those who claim to be in authority, the majority of people feel powerless.

Unless we find a way for the silenced majority to have their say, by default, we are sentenced to sullen servitude. In so doing though, the ground is being prepared for inevitable insurrection. There is a cancer of discontent in society. This is not simply a benign discomfort, rather it is a malignant disaffection. Neither is this a time for simply dealing with the symptoms but rather an imperative to truly tackle the causes.

From time to time, a few politicians may call for us to treat the causes, but time and again, powerful interests ensure such pleas are never carried through. Why is that? Could it be that these same powerful interests are the macrobes which bacterium-like are intentionally causing social dis-ease?

We need to be actively aware that there are those in the upper echelons of society, who will placate, fob off, and cynically overrule, suppress (and if necessary silence) any dissenters, who seek to expose their true motives. They will ensure that such dissenters are labelled as irresponsible, social disruptives, bent on causing anarchy.

The dictionary defines a rebel as a person who rises in opposition or armed resistance against an established government or leader, a person who resists authority, control, or convention. Those of us who feel disenfranchised and desire to see a more just and fair society need to be proud to acknowledge that we are rebels. We are rebels with a cause — a just cause.

Being a rebel doesn’t automatically mean we have to rise in armed resistance, to me this would be abhorrent. However, those who feel like-minded should seek to find a way in which they can responsibly rebel — to say to those with power and those in power: Stop the abuse!

So often when someone seeks to show there is a problem within a group (whether large or small, national or local), a leader will respond: ‘What’s the answer?’. When the riposte is: ‘I don’t know!’, the illogical retort is: ‘Well, there can’t be a problem!’

This is where the rebel must vigorously press for an open discourse. Those who feel like-minded must express our determination to find a way to give a voice to the people. We must declare our resolve to discover a way in which all that are able to, can collectively confront the fragmentation of our shared rights. We must have the audacity to suggest that we can speak for the young, the undiscerning, and the vulnerable, who cannot or will not speak for themselves.

I write this, not as an academic or philosopher, nor am I claiming to be erudite. Neither am I asserting that I have any more authority or expertise than the next man. No, I write as someone who is aware of my own failure to consistently live up to what I espouse. However, I am extremely distressed, tired of and fed up with the state of our nation, and the lack of leadership (particularly politically), to inspire us to work for (and responsibly fight for) a just and fair society.

Wednesday, 29 November 2017

The three ingredients for individual optimum achievement or success in life are Competence, Commitment and Confidence.

Competence is set of skills you have already acquired and which are evidence that at some time in the past, you have overcome adversity, passed an exam, gained the victory, fought against the odds, come through and survived trouble, difficulty, hardship, suffering, sorrow or heartache.

Commitment is an indication of your determination to win through any difficult or unpleasant situationyou face, complete any task you have taken on. It shows in the way you are tackling things, the way in which you are facing the challenge. The challenge may be one you have chosen. It may be a challenge you didn’t choose, but which you believe life, circumstances, chance or destiny forced on you. If so, you need to choose to take it on, to make it your choice, the battle (even the war) which you have decided you are going to fight to win.

Confidence grows as you acknowledge and take account of your Competence and Commitment and allow those truths about yourself to feed and nourish your self-belief. Self-belief is the essence of Confidence. It develops as you start talking truth to yourself.

Talking truth has both an exponential capacity and a magic quality. Exponential in that it is characterised by an extremely rapid increase or growth; magic in that it works with an inexplicable, extraordinary power or influence. Basically, the more you tell the truth to yourself, the more self-belief mushrooms. Self-belief can’t get enough of the truth; the more you feed it, the more it craves it!

So, in a nutshell: If you have proven your competence in the past to be tenacious, a fighter and not a quitter, an achiever, and shown your commitment to accomplishing the challenge you are now facing, then you can have the confidence to believe you can succeed and win the victory!